


are they free now?

by Queen_Of_Sarcasm



Series: Just Little Boys Playing Dress-up [3]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Arson, Be Nice To Me by Front Bottoms is where the quotes are from, Child Death, Dissociation, Flower Symbolism, Found Family, Hurt/No Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Major Character Injury, Major character death - Freeform, POV Alternating, POV Outsider, POV Third Person, no beta read, songfic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27039718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Of_Sarcasm/pseuds/Queen_Of_Sarcasm
Summary: "I can't tell you why your children are dyingBut I can offer you my sympathyAnd I can't show you where your children are buriedCause they're notThey're not buried anymore."-All the Dead Kids by AJJ----------------------------A series of mini drabble character studies of the OG L'manburg boys.
Relationships: Dave | Technoblade & Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Series: Just Little Boys Playing Dress-up [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951354
Comments: 4
Kudos: 117





	are they free now?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer; This one-shot does not take place in the same universe as my other works. Just thought I should mention that, besides that, please enjoy!

_ “There are certain things you ask of me _

_ And there are certain things I'll lack _

_ The beginning, we were winning _

_ But now I'm just making up facts”. _

The fox leaves first in terms of time.

He was standing on the stage as well, he was leaning against the left wall keeping an eye out for people’s reactions. He watched the baker and the king stand by each other with cold iron looks and he catches the baker’s eyes once and she glares at him. He quickly averts his gaze, his heart clenching at the fact that he knows she hates him but he can’t tell her why he did any of it.

He sees what looks like the rest of the world, all standing there watching the gentle, his little brother talks on the stand with the president standing behind, his sharp teeth grin and a possessive gaze staring straight at the young boy. The fox bites his tongue to resist the urge of telling the president to fuck off and get away from his little brother.

But, at this moment, when the fox is distracted by his conflicted mind, he hears a shout from the hills. He turns on his heel and his ears prick up as he sees the poet, his older brother standing at the peak with a remote in his hand. He barely is able to get a solid look before he hears a hiss emerge around him and he feels the ground around him get ripped apart (he has been through this before, he still has nightmares about the last time this happened and he knows his older brother did too, so why has he done this?).

His vision clears to feel a heavyweight on his chest and a sharp pain throughout his leg. His medical war knowledge tells him that his leg is broken and that a broken leg requires a plaster cast that is made from string and….his brain gets louder and louder but he blocks it out. He looks up and sees a heavy wooden chunk of debris on his chest, holding him down and he hears the sound of burning while the smell of iron fills his nose.

He also hears the faint screams and cries of the other people who have been trapped in this disaster, he hears the faint mumbling prayers of the raider that are in a language he never learned. He hears the blank’s screams as he calls for freedom. He hears the president’s angry shouts as he curses the poet. But, you strain and don’t hear your little brother’s voice and you know he is already dead. 

In any other situation, you would be scared of what is happening to you but you are just confused because why did your older brother do this? You can understand why he hates you (you hate yourself because you started this to get on the president’s good side and you did but no one else knows this, why be a spy when you have no one to tell the information to).

You just lay there, your vision fading and the pain in your leg getting even duller and he knows, with a muted realization, that he is bleeding out. His tail just lays at his side and his ears are dropping. He stares at the grid of broken burning wood above you and feel himself fading off. He let himself go and he doesn’t feel the tears streaming down his face as a final breath leaves his lips.

(When they find the fox, it is the next day, those still alive went digging through the rubble to find the bodies. The fox’s was one of the first ones they found. His usually ginger and brunette hair was matted and gray from ashes. His tail and ears usually in constant movement are now still but his eyes are open. His arms wrapped around himself in one final hug, almost as if he comforted himself as we died. They bury him in the forest and orange chrysanthemums grow from the grave).

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ “What's it matter anymore? _

_ If you believe the lies I tell _

_ There's no meaning to the words _

_ But we still sing these songs well”. _

The king goes next, barely before the gentle though.

He was standing in the crowd, his arm wrapped around the baker, keeping her company since no one else in this country is with them besides their little brother who is standing on the stage. She keeps an eye on her little brother the entire time, trying to give him any sense that at least someone is caring (he is just a boy, the king remembers this every time they see their little brother standing there, his usual joy non-existent and his usually colorful clothes replaced for a solid cold black suit).

The king notices the fox out of the corner of their eyes and they feel a righteous anger boil deep inside but they bury it deep. The king knows how most people work, but he can’t figure the fox out. She thought that he loved his family but he betrayed them for a man he barely knew but he seems to regret it and he is also staring at their little brother with a sad gaze (the king knows they are a hypocrite that they are no better than the fox and they have always known that. They never forgot).

The king’s focus is broken by a yell, and before he can even pinpoint where it came from, he feels the ground start to tear underneath him and he immediately reacts, and he grabs the baker’s hand in an instant and pulls them both away. It is not enough though, because she feels a sudden burn tear across her back before she is thrown forward.

The king awakes, facing the soot-covered grass and as they get up, they feel an almost poison feel spread across their entire back half and as they put a hand on their back to check the damage, they feel the pain flare but as they pull their hand away, they see it stained red with blood. He grits his teeth at the sight but before he can think of his own health, he remembers the baker (the baker is the kindest person they have ever met. The baker acts for the most part, like an animal-loving gentle woman but the king knows that there is a fury buried deep inside her that is scarier than anything they have ever seen. The king has only seen this anger once but they know that it would bring the masked man to his knees and if pushed hard enough could destroy that bastard devil).

The king looks to his left to see a heartbreaking sight. The baker lays there, her eyes closed and as the king approaches, there is no breath. So, the king stands up with shaky legs, and she begins to limp off and she manages to get a long way and she manages to get back home to her castle. She falls on her back with a yelp on the wooden floor in her castle’s lobby.

They lay there and see outside their window, the sky, now turned gray from ash and smoke, seemingly stretching on forever. The king realizes in an instant that they are dying, and he is shocked. Not because he is dying but because he is surprised it didn’t happen sooner. They honestly expected that someone would have murdered them months ago, that at least someone would have wanted to get rid of the loose end. 

So the king is not scared.

The king just rests there, the pain now just background noise and they watch as their vision begins to close in. He smiles, teeth stained pink from internal bleeding, and as one last wish, he drags himself slowly to his courtyard. She barely gets in before her arms cramp up from blood loss. They flip themselves up to face the sky and here, the gray sky is even more visible but it doesn’t matter. (The king was selfish and wanted to die somewhere that he decided).

The king rips off his sunglasses and crown and throws them to the side. The king just lays there, a bittersweet grin on their face as their memories of the good times flash by in an instant, and in their last moment, they could almost swear that the smog clears for a moment to pour sunlight down. 

(When they find the king, it is the same day. Supplies were needed to save the wounded and everyone knows of the king’s riches but as the survivors arrived, they found a red stain leading to the castle’s courtyard, and there lay the king. Their crown and sunglasses laying in the grass and their royal robe ripped to shreds. But, unlike every other victim, there is a small grin on their face. The king is buried exactly where he died and blood-red grevillea grows from the grave).

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ “But you're a killer and I'm your best friend _

_ Think it's unfair, your situation _

_ You say I'm changing _

_ Sorry I didn't know I had to stay the same”. _

The gentle is third.

He had been standing on the stand giving a speech that he barely thought about. He wasn’t even reading the paper that he was given (he literally couldn’t). He was just coming up with whatever he could think of and he knew this made the president mad. He could feel the president’s grip on his shoulder get tighter but he couldn’t bring himself to care (he already has so many hand-shaped bruises on his shoulders and arms that it has become commonplace).

He looks out to the crowd before him and barely registers any of their faces because his mind is already too wrapped in his thoughts about what he knows is going to happen. He knows that this festival will end in flame, but that he can’t do anything about it. He is too weak to even try (he has always been too weak). So, he accepts what is about with open arms because he has no other opinion (but if he cried every night, not wanting anyone to die. If he paced his room, thinking of just something that he could, his mind always comes up empty).

His absent-minded speech is interrupted by a loud shout, and he knows that it is his older brother, ready to carry out his plan so he pulls his a pearl from his pocket and throws it to try and get himself to land in the pond and as he feels his body shift, he feels heat sear across his body (he has already been burned once, and remembers that his old home was never rebuilt. No one even tried to fix it so the torn apart home just stood there, its’ wood now stained gray).

He feels the water around his body shock him back to full consciousness so he swims up and just rests on the pondside. He looks on the horizon to just see smoke and fire that seems to reach to the sky and he notices this, he looks down at his left arm and leg to see them covered in burns and gashes from debris. The pain barely registers in his mind though, he just pulls out his sword and stands up, leaning on his right ankle before beginning the walk into the woods.

He and his twin had planned to meet in the woods once it was all over. They were going to run away together. So, the gentle limps his way into the forest. It takes him three times the effort and time that he expected so by the time he gets to the hidden flower field that they agreed to meet in, the night is already approaching.

The gentle steps into the flower field to see instead of his twin, a hoard of monsters standing there. He tries to go still, but they notice him almost immediately. The monsters run at him, ready to attack so he does the only thing he can do, and he begins to run (this field was the one place where the two boys were safe. Away from war, away from politics, away from trauma. Someplace that they could just be kids again).

The gentle tries to run as fast as he can with his injuries and before he can blink, he finds himself on a cliffside with monsters approaching on all sides. He holds his sword out trying to keep them at bay but a single creeper sneaks out and before he can pull up his shield, it explodes. He is thrown backward,

directly over the cliff.

The gentle finds himself staring up at the night sky above, the stars and moon hidden behind the smoke that is still trapped in the atmosphere. He feels the air begin to rush past him and in this split second, and he cries out, he screams, so terrified to die but his only thought before he hits the ground is that he is sorry that he and his twin never got to be truly free.

(When they find the gentle, it is weeks later. They had been searching for the boy trying to find where he went so they decided to go to the twins’ field. They find a line of trampled grass leading to the cliffs. As they look over the edge, they see the gentle’s tiny body laying there. The stone below him stained a bright red and his suit burned away. He is just staring directly at the sky above with tear streaks running down his face. They bury him in the flowerfield, away from all the pain, and bright yellow freesias blossom from the grave).

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ “I try to write you poems, but the words they don't make sense _

_ The hand tries to grip the pencil, but the fingers are too tense _

_ I try to show emotion, but my eyes won't seem to wet _

_ I'd love to tell you stories, but I can't remember how they went.” _

The poet (the insane man) is fourth.

He finds himself on the cliff, the button in his hand.

He presses it and watches the land below get torn apart.

He walks in the aftermath, his clothes stained and he looks at each body one by one with a mad grin on his face.

He takes it all in, breathing in the smoke before he slowly walks back into the forest.

He gets back to the base, but he doesn’t enter it. He just stands there.

And turns in a different direction and just continues to walk.

He walks, and he walks, and he walks.

He must walk for days, never stopping once.

His mind completely gone, his body just moving on its own.

His body dies 4 days in from exhaustion but it doesn’t matter. 

He was dead the moment he pushed the button,

he was dead when he pushed his family away,

he was dead when he realized that he wasn’t the hero 

(he died the moment the Sky Gods took him away).

(They never find the poet. They don’t even try to. He didn’t deserve anyone caring about him. His body is just in the middle of a jungle, far away from “home”. He is slowly consumed by the earth, his ripped scarf getting taken away in the wind, and his ash-covered coat being ripped apart by a local robin that needed more material for her nest. He dies here, but he is never laid to rest, but magenta amaryllis grows from the dirt so that must mean something).

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ “You were all we had left after it all was filtered out _

_ I'm turning you on in a dark room right before we both pass out _

_ I'll turn you on when I need you, but the batteries ran out _

_ They ran out.” _

The hero is the last one.

In the hours before the festival, the hero and the poet got into a fight. The hero’s last-ditch effort to stop his brother but he fails and finds himself being dragged into a dark room hidden in the ravine’s walls. It is cramped, barely tall enough for the poet, the walls are covered with metal bars and there is nothing in the room except a torn blanket on the floor (the hero is reminded of another small ravine room, where he was crushed under pistons in complete darkness for hours and his older brother never saved him. Maybe this should have been a sign).

The poet throws the hero into this room before sealing the only exit with stone. The hero screams and asks why he is doing, to let him out. The poet just says it is until the festival is over. The hero doesn’t believe him, he knows that is going to die here. He slams his fists and kicks the iron bars, he screams hoping that at least someone, anyone hears him.

No one does.

He is left in this room for what he thinks is days? He has no idea of time anymore, he just sleeps, wakes up, panics about how dark and cramped the walls are. They are closing in, he can’t get out, he is going to die, oh gods. Then, he passes out from his panic attack and the cycle repeats over and over (he has always been afraid of being alone since he was a little boy and spent his first years of life stuck on a floating island in the middle of nothingness).

In his dreams, he is safe though. In his dreams, his family is whole again. The fox, the light, and the baker all get to build, bake, do whatever they want and he dreams of him and his twin spending days just chilling with these three, having food fights with flour for what feels like hours. They all sit on the docks and look out at the horizon while singing any stupid songs that they can think of (here, the fox isn’t in a suit. Here, the light never betrayed them, he never became the king. Here, the baker is not full of righteous fury, she is just kind).

In his dreams, he and his twin get to perform pranks with the raider. They all pretend to be the “mafia” and they hid potion ingredients in the spark, blank and masked’s chests. And when the three Kings find out, they just chase off the 3 tricksters but all of them have smiles on their faces and laugh the entire time. He and his twin practice water drops for hours with the spark, they learn more about how to code a communicator from the blank and the masked is willing to listen to any of their crazed rants (Here, the raider never becomes the vice-president, and he never goes cold. Here, the spark doesn’t want to burn the world down and he doesn’t kill a single pet. Here, the blank is somehow even more distant. Here, the masked is not a manipulative tyrant who just wants power and he is not willing to kill a child to get it).

In his dreams, all of his older brothers and his dad are with him and his twin. They get to enjoy their life together happily, and the sun always shines. His dad teaches the twins how to actually clean up their messes and he laughs at their dumb jokes. His older brother duels the boys and he sometimes lets them win, and once that is done, they spend the rest of time braiding flowers into their older brother’s hair. His eldest brother just spends his days creating songs and he lets the twins create lyrics for some of them and at the same time, they plan their crimes for the next day with sneaky grins on their faces (Here, his dad is actually there, they always know where he is. Here, his older brother is not wasting away in a potato field, and he doesn’t duel with the purpose of actually teaching because he doesn’t have any need to. Here, his eldest brother never makes him fight in a war, he still gets to be a kid).

One day, the hero just doesn’t wake up. His body had died from dehydration. It is a quiet and uneventful death for the hero, a boy who spent his entire life living in the sun with never a quiet moment. But, things changed. 

(When they find the hero, it is 3 months later. The survivors came to the ravine to see if they could find any trace of where the hero went and they find a slightly hidden filled in a hole in the walls. They dig it open and I won’t even describe it. Let’s just say the smell of rotting stays in their noses for days and the sight of a body that was so usually full of light and life, now cold and basically a skeleton haunts their dreams for years. They bury him next to his twin, and from his grave grows soft red camellia).

_ “And all your very worst enemies will be gone soon _

_ I think you're changing _

_ Don't worry, you don't gotta stay the same _

_ Can we talk about this later?”. _

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Somewhere, far away from here, five boys, who all died too young, are free. A fox sits on a dock and he fishes from a pond, a soft smile on his face while he pets an actual fox sleeping at his side. A light sits on their cabin’s porch in a rocking chair, drinking a glass of ice-cold lemonade, while reading a book. A pair of twin boys play a game of tag in a field of flowers, laughing the entire time, as bees swarm around them and a cow grazes in the distance. A poet bakes an old friend’s pie recipe and he leans out the door and he calls for his brothers to come inside for a slice. Here they are all at peace with each other. Here they don’t have to fight ever again. We watch all of the boys go inside and we watch the cabin’s door close with a small click and even from here, we can hear laughter and shouting coming from inside and we know that they are finally safe, for once).

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, sorry that is this is just a pure angst fest but I wanted to get something out before the festival so here it is! I wrote this all in one night so sorry if it is not as good as my other works but I did my best. If you want to please give this fic a bookmark, kudos, or subscribe to the series since I will make sure to write even more Dream SMP fics since it is just activated by writing passion. Have a good morning, afternoon, or night wherever you are!


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